001reflect and adjust course. One of the things I tell every board is this. Yes, on a yearly basis, you're going to get school improvement plans and you're going to approve them. And then those improvement plans come to us at the state and we approve them. Okay? The only thing in a school improvement plan that is static, that does not change during the course of the year is the goal. It's the only thing that doesn't change. the key activities and the monitoring, those might change throughout the course of the year. And that's okay because we may find that this activity is working really, really well. So, we want to expand on this. We want to go deeper into this strategy and this strategy that we put in there isn't working at all. So, we're going to
002take that one out because it's just not working for our staff. It's just not working for our kids. We're going to take it out. All right? And we want boards to be okay with that and be comfortable with the plan that they work during the year. The goal is going to stay the same, but the steps might change throughout the year. And that's okay. That doesn't mean things are going wrong, things or things aren't working. It just means that we needed to make some cho changes throughout the course of the year. And we're okay with that because one of the things when we tell principles and district staff throughout the year is was, "Hey, listen, we need to change course because this isn't working." And one of the responses we get is, "Well, the board's
003not going to want us to change that because they already approved this." So, please remember that the goal will stay the same, but the activities and the timeline inside may change, and that's okay. And again, questions that you can ask throughout the year for this is what future professional development needs have been identified. So at the end of the year thinking into the 25 26 school year, what might be some of the professional development that staff needs in order to continue the work that they're already doing? And it brings us back to the continuous school improvement model. It's a circle for a reason because we only start it once, okay? And then we keep it going all the time. All right? Examine, reflect, and adjust course. We may need to change up things. At the
004end of the year, we've reached our goal. 38% of our African-American students are at or above the 60th percentile. Well, guess what? Next year, we're going to shoot for 47% of our African-American students are going to be at or above the 60th percentile. Okay, we've got by spring of 2025, um, our chronic absenteeism rate is going to be down to 45%. Great. We reached that. Next year it's going to be down to 32%. All right. So, we're going to change our goals over the course of the years, but during the year they stay the same. Okay. This QR code right here takes you to the school improvement website. All right. That is where all of these resources and more are available to anyone that wants to use them. All right. Like I said at the
005beginning, we've got them broken down into intensive school documents, comprehensive schooling documents, targeted school documents. We break it down that way because there are certain expectations for intensive schools, comprehensive, and targeted schools. They're a little different for each one. Okay? So, we've got different timelines and guides for them at those levels. And then we've got it for all schools regardless of designation. Here's just some good practices. Here's a guide for you, kind of a timeline to help you through the process. But regardless of designation, here's some resources for you. Our on demand learning series is on our website. If you ever wanted to see what the allocations were for every school in the state that receives allocations, we've got a spreadsheet on there that has every allocation for every school across the state is listed
006on there. Okay. Our 48 learning partners, their contracts and presentations that they did during an open house that we hosted when the contracts first came out are all listed on our website. So if principles need a help and a place to start, they can start there. As I shared with you at the beginning, we have a helpline. There is the phone number and the email address to submit questions. Okay, my wonderful our department's wonderful assistant. She monitors this for us and she doles out those questions to whoever needs to answer them. If a specific question comes in from East St. Louis district, it goes right to Christina. She forwards it right to Christina. Okay. Usually our districts that have a coordinator don't usually submit questions through our helpline. They can, but usually they know, hey,
007if I've got a question, I'm going to Christina for that question because she can help me. Okay? Or I know Nick's a supervisor. I'm going to ask him because I don't like Christina. I'm just kidding. We love Christina. She's great. So that's on there. Okay. So that's where you can ask those questions. That next one down, that's me. I'm the supervisor for the school district improvement department. The QR code that's there is my business card. Okay. I haven't carried a paper business card in about 5 years now. It's wonderful because I'm never like, "Oh, I got a card around here somewhere. I'm like, "Oh, no. I've got my phone. I always have my phone. Let me get it up for you." And I can pull up my business card. Okay. My phone number, email address,
008everything is on there. If you have questions after this or you want to talk about something after this, I am more than happy to talk with anybody, okay? at any time. Please reach out, ask the question. All right? I am happy to help with anything to help you understand, to help you better engage as board members, as district administrators, to help you engage in this process because this work is so crucial to what we do. And the final QR code that's on there is just for me. It's feedback on today's training. Okay? It asks you what other resources you might have, what do you need, out of the questions that you have. I do ask that everybody please take a few minutes to fill that out. Um it does help me as you are the
009eighth district that I've done this with. Now I can tell you I've made changes to this presentation and to this training as a couple of districts have said, "Hey, have you thought about X, Y, and Z?" So I've added some things and changed some things up. So I do ask that everybody please take a few minutes to do that um to answer those questions. And then finally, I do want to say thank you. Um, I know as board members you are elected volunteers to a position. There's a lot that comes at you. A lot of times at board meetings, I've sat through board meetings where there are angry constituents standing here yelling at you about what's taking place inside of districts and there's only so much you can do. I do appreciate the work that
010you do. I understand the work that you do having been a board member. So, I do appreciate your time today. Um, I know times were changed today. So, I do appreciate your time. Um, and if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out and ask and let me know. Okay. All right. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks a lot, Nick. Thank you. All right. Last would be motion to adjourn the meeting. Can I get a motion? Make a motion. I second. A motion by Remy Ding. Second by Miss Willie Ray. Roll call. Remy Dane. Yes. Willie Ray. Yes. Lonzo Greenwood. Lonzo Greenwood. Walter Hood. Yes. Timothy Lockett. Yes. Danielle Moore. Danielle Moore. Latoya Mosley. Yes. Meet is ajourned. Thank you. All right. Thank you.